During installation and operation, failures may occur in software and hardware. For example, a failure (also referred to as an “error”) may be caused by a driver fault or caused by a hardware defect. Software and hardware developers often analyze and interpret failures or errors in order to find the cause of the failures. By determining the cause of the failures, developers can provide necessary software updates or improved hardware designs.
To determine the cause of failures or errors, developers need certain information about the failures that they regard as essential. Unfortunately, developers often lack such information about the failures. Users experiencing failures typically do not provide such essential information to the developers. Consequently, developers trying to analyze and interpret the failures are often relegated to re-create failures and issues in-house. Also, it may be necessary for developers to contact users to obtain essential information about the failures.